The Trump-Musk DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, XXI – A Patriotic Citizen’s Reading List

One of THE major components of the Musk-Trump KAKISTOCRACY is LIES, Misinformation, twisted information, DELIBERATE DISINFORMATION – a literal. POISONING of American minds. They are capitalizing on 90 years of FAR RIGHT. efforts to divide Americans, to camouflage the EAL villains – the top 1% and corporations – to manufacture hatreds and discontent.

Over the last 90 years, the FAR RIGHT has built up MANY propaganda outlets: foundations; phantom funding of “grassroots” groups; funded numerous “experts” churning out ‘studies,” books, articles, making media appearances; creating bogus “legal” theories like “originalism” and “textualism”; funding “legal” studies of “law and economics”; funding university level “studies”; supported FAR RIGHT media personalities and programs; building their own schools and universities; supporting entire media and internet organizations………..

A vital media outlet – local newspapers and media – have been devastated by the internet and being bought up by major media companies – who then DICTATE what is said. The loss os small, often “Mom & Pop” operations, has been a MAJOR loss in those communities, and, usually a blow to democracy.

Not content with all this. – the FAR RIGHT. has also engaged in a vast. CENSORSHIP. program to force local libraries and schools to remove materials ‘offensive” to THEM, often a single person’s views.
The Musk-Trump KAKISTOCRACY. is vigorously removing ANY material THEY say YOU shouldn’t see or read – virtually always the TRUTH on what happened, 1789-2025.

This is straight out of Orwell’s “1984,” when ‘big Brother” told YOU all you needed to know; and – what REAL dictatorships – Communist, Nazi, Fascist, Putin – do and did.

***YOUR defense – read mainline newspapers, books, magazines; listen to mainline news. Be very careful of ANY “news” on social media – how do you really know it isn’t a Russian or Chinese bot posing as your “influencer”??? Studies have shown that Republicans who DIDN’T listen to Fox News were more realistically informed than Republicans who did.

***A Beginning List – to help YOU ask questions:
– magazines: Mother Jones, The Atlantic, Scientific American, Church & State
– crucial books: “Democracy In chains” – Nancy macLean; “Dark Money” – Jane Mayer; “Evil Geniuses” – Kurt Andersen; – the money BEHIND the FAR RIGHT

– stealing prosperity: “The Betrayal of the American Dream – double Pulitzer winners Donald Barlett & James Steele; “Who Stole the American Dream” – Pulitzer winner Hedrick Smith
– economic inequality: “The Spirit Level” [international bestseller] – Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett; “The Price of Inequality” – Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz; “Economic Apartheid in America” – Chuck Collins & Felice Yeskel

– sabotaging democracy: “How Democracies Die” – Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt; “American Amnesia” – Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson; “The Big Myth” – Naomo Oreskes & Erik Conway; “Minority Rule” – Ari Berman; “Attack from Within” – Barbara McQuade
– fascism & authoritarianism: “How Fascism Works” – Jason stanley; “On Tyranny” – Timothy Snyder; “Twilight of Democracy” – Anne Applebaum; “On Fascism” – Matthew MacWilliams; “American Nightmare” – Henry Giroux

– Trumpism: “Authoritarian Nightmare” – John Dean & Bob Altemeyer; “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” – Pulitzer winner David C. Johnston; “The Cult of Trump” – Steven Hassan; “How The Right Lost Its Mind” – Charles Sykes; “It Was All A LIE” – Stuart Stevens, 25-year Republican lead campaign strategist
– corruption: “On corruption In America” – Sarah Chayes; “American Kleptocracy” – Casey Michel; “Corruption In America” – Zephyr Teachout; “Kleptopia” – Tom Burgis

– warnings: “Broken Government” – John W. Dean; “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks” – Thomas Mann & Norman Ornstein; “The Wrecking Crew” – Thomas Frank; “The Great Unraveling” – Nobel winner Paul Krugman
– corporate criminality: “Predator Nation” – Academy Award winner Charles Ferguson; “Selling Out” – Mark Green; “These Are the Plunderers” – Pulitzer winner Gretchen Morgenson & Joshua Rosner; “The One Percent Solution” – Gordon Lafer; “THe Devine Right of Capital” – Marjorie Kelly

– truth: “Murder The Truth” – David Enrich; “The Death of Truth” – Michiko Kakutani; “Erasing History” – Jason Stanley; “The Death of Expertise” – Tom Nichols; “The Digital Civil War” – Peter Daou; “Losing Reality” – Robert j. Lifton
– religious extremism: “Preparing For War” – Bradley Onishi; “American Fascists” – Chris Hedges; “The Power Worshippers” – Katherine Stewart; “The Theocons” – Damon Linker; “Thy Kingdom Come” – Randall Balmer; “Church & State” magazine – numerous articles on Christian Nationalism

***The TRUTH about the Trump-Musk KAKISTOCRACY is available – please read and find it!!! YOU can help save American democracy from the FAR RIGHT’S 9-year effort to create a THEOCRATIC OLIGARCHY in YOUR country